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| Park Wood gets the Thumbs Up! |
On Saturday May 11th we are going to help out at the Park Wood festival (10:00 am – 4:00 pm). Park Wood is a small, award winning woodland, owned by the Woodland Trust and proudly maintained by volunteers. It is a lovely spot, situated to the west of the A3 road north of Waterlooville. We will be taking people on a foraging walk through the wood, where we will look to spot any fruit or nut trees. Our little walk will begin at 11:00.
Given the time of year, the most likely thing we will be able to collect would be Elderflowers, which can be used to make delicious Cordial or Champagne. We can identify other trees or bushes that are not in season by their leaves, flowers or bark.
We will be accompanied by Eleanor Woodcock and her family. Eleanor is the budding young naturalist who pens the Birding in the Garden blog. So, any lack of seasonable fruit nut trees will be filled in with Eleanor’s bird and wildlife identification and observation skills.
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| Raspberries, I Believe |
It looks to be a very exciting day with oodles of interesting, fun and family-friendly activities.
We went on a quick reccy to familiarise ourselves with the pathways and see what fruit trees we could find. As far as foraging goes, in Park Wood we found Cherries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Hazel and Elder. According to Eleanor you can eat the red flesh of Yew berries, but bearing in mind that the seeds and leaves are horribly poisonous, these ancient trees are probably best employed as nature’s climbing frames. I think the Bluebells should be out too.
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| Kids Just Love Trees |
My children enjoyed themselves so much that on our return, they were working out possible ways of living permanently in the woods, if perhaps, a massive volcano destroyed all civilisation as we know it...
For more information on Park Wood and the festival contact:
Jackie Buckley
Friends of Park Wood
023 9226 6418
Hi!!! I am just doing a post on Birding In The Garden about the same subject! I will use the photos you have if that's okay (the snipping tool on windows 7 allows you to get photos). It indeed was enjoyable (arg! I went all posh then), sitting in the big Yew tree chatting about wildlife. I was not expecting to find giant carved wooden feet there! I am looking forward to the actual festival and helping people spot wildlife.
ReplyDelete:o) Eleanor Woodcock, Birding In The Garden